Rail gun uses kinetic energy to deliver Mach 5 wallop
The is installing an electro-magnetic laboratory at its in Dahlgren, Va., bringing it one step closer to developing a ship-mounted version of this futuristic cannon.
The 32-megajoule weapon appears to be the largest rail gun ever built, according to defense contractor BAE Systems. A joule is what’s needed to produce one watt of energy for one second.
It uses a magnetic “rail” instead of a chemical propellant like gunpowder to heave projectiles at Mach 7 for what could be up to 220 miles down range–that’s 10 times farther than what contemporary naval guns. The projectile hits at Mach 5, destroying the target with kinetic energy instead of conventional explosives.
